EG4 6500 with EG4 LifePower4 battery rack and Solar Assistant BMS question.

[Lukiya]

I have my EG4 6500 and EG4 battery racks running for almost half year without problem.

The day before yesterday I decided to add Solar Assistant into my system. Everything works pretty well by connecting SA to 6500 RS232 port.

One thing that bothers me is I found out I will need to connect my battery rack RS485 port to SA to read battery details. But the RS485 port is currently connected to 6500 BMS communication port.

So, I'm wondering how I can let both 6500 and SA to read BMS data at the same time.
Will below diagram work? Use a RJ45 splitter or a network switch.

If it won't work, how do you guys handle this situation? Thanks in advance!

 

[timselectric]

@Adam De Lay has done it, I believe.

Scratch that, not the same batteries.
Sorry for the ping, Adam.

 

[Adam De Lay]

I've seen it done for Sol-Arks.

I believe Jeff used splitters to do what you're wanting to do.

 

[wildbillpdx]

Can't do both at the same time. My understanding is it is one or the other, not both.

 

[Lukiya]

I've seen it done for Sol-Arks.

I believe Jeff used splitters to do what you're wanting to do.

Based on the video, found and purchased a same look splitter on amazon, will post whether it works tomorrow.

 

[Texpie]

I plan to setup my EG4 6500EX and 3 - Lifepower4 batteries to the configuration the OP has described. However, the EG4 6500EX manual indicates setting the first battery address to 0 while the Solar Assistant website indicates setting the first battery starting address to 2. Will setting my starting battery address at 2 cause problems for the EG4 6500EX communication?

 

[AZ Solar Junkie]

I plan to setup my EG4 6500EX and 3 - Lifepower4 batteries to the configuration the OP has described. However, the EG4 6500EX manual indicates setting the first battery address to 0 while the Solar Assistant website indicates setting the first battery starting address to 2. Will setting my starting battery address at 2 cause problems for the EG4 6500EX communication?

Yes - for BMS communication with LifePower4 batteries it requires the first battery set to ID 0, which changes the communication protocol that particular battery uses which is not compatible with Solar Assistant. It might be possible to monitor the other batteries with Solar Assistant using a splitter - not sure.

 

[Shinzul]

The BMS data is likely going to be wildly inaccurate at times, depending on what you're trying to understand. The solution I'm going with is to use a Victron smart shunt with a VE.direct cable from the shunt to the raspberry pi. You can set SA to use the shunt for all the battery data.

@Adam De Lay has a video on it:

 

[Texpie]

The Smart shunt is an excellent way to view aggregate data of the entire battery bank. I was hoping to capture detailed data from each of the battery banks. The EG4 communication hub may be another alternative.

 

[wildbillpdx]

The EG4 communication hub may be another alternative.

For the hub to work, first battery needs to be set to 1 on the DIP switches, which also doesn't work with Solar Assistant.